Masks and Staffs

Michaela Pelican is Junior Professor of Cultural and Social Anthropology at the University of Cologne. She is also the director of the University of Cologne Forum "Ethnicity as a Political Resource: Perspectives from Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe" and a member of the Cologne Global South Studies Center. She is the editor of a special issue, "Global African Entrepreneurs" (Urban Anthropology 2014, 43), and the author of several articles on indigenous rights movements in Africa.

“Pelican’s book is a fascinating descent into the dazzling complexities that ethnicity can take on even within a small area, and provides original and helpful tools for making sense of these complexities… [Her] observations make this book an inspiring example of how detailed ethnography can engender theoretical insights of a wider purport.” • Africa Review“…necessary and significant, [this study is] a much-welcomed monograph that builds on and advances the corpus of knowledge about the evolution and dynamics of interethnic relations in the Cameroon Grasslands.” • American Anthropologist

• AcknowledgementsNotes on TransliterationList of AbbreviationsIntroductionChapter 1. Setting the Scene: Cultural Difference and Political Rivalry in Times of TransitionChapter 2. The Power of the Fon: Nchaney Political HistoryChapter 3. From Pastoral Society to Indigenous People: Mbororo Identity PoliticsChapter 4. A Shift to Economic Competition? Farmer–Herder Conflict and Cattle Theft in the Misaje AreaChapter 5. On Being Hausa: Consolidation of the Hausa Ethnic Category in the GrassfieldsChapter 6. Grassfielder by Birth, Muslim by Choice: Religious and Ethnic ConversionChapter 7. The Murder of Mr X: Legal Pluralism and Conflict Management in the Early 2000sEpilogueGlossaryReferencesIndex